Imran Khan

These articles are by Imran Khan from Pakistan.  Mr. Khan is a very intelligent, hard worker in Pakistan who is looking to expand his career and talents by writing and expressing his opinions and views upon the world and other world issues.

Contact Mr. Khan: imran@wzartv.com

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In 2001, following a terrorist attack on an Indian parliament building in New Delhi, India deployed thousands of additional troops on its border with Pakistan. Tension was very high and many pundits predicted that war was inevitable between two rivals and nuclear powers. To prevent a war which was likely to cause devastating effects on both countries and the entire world, an endless diplomacy was started by an international community, especially from United States and United Kingdom. Many top officials including Mr. Collin Powell, US Secretary of State at that time and Mr. Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary of that time that visited the region many times to cool things down. The personal involvement of Mr. George W. Bush and Mr. Tony Blair was also visible. President Bush has said, “2001 was the year that we had shuttle diplomacy to convince Pakistan and India not to go to war with each other.” The shuttle diplomacy used by US and UK worked well in easing tensions between two neighbors and finally war was prevented. Now things are much better and both countries having the best relations they ever had in their history.

One thing which is very important in this case was the position and influence of the mediating countries. Both United States and United Kingdom are developed nations. United States is the world’s most powerful nation and only super power in the world. The British ruled the region for over 200 years and have historical influence.  They used their power and influence to bring peace. India and Pakistan, being developing countries, are reliant on many things from these powerful nations and were not in a position to ignore them.  So that really paid off and because of that influence a war was prevented. It clearly shows that if any country has influence and if it put it rightly it could change decisions of other countries and even avert a war between rivals.

In 2006, the situation between the United States and Iran is worsening with every passing day.  Both are engaged in a war of words and keep threatening each other for sever consequences. There are efforts by the world community to resolve the issue peacefully through diplomacy. But will diplomacy work? In 2003 huge diplomatic efforts were made to prevent US attack on Iraq but all efforts proved fruitless. So only diplomacy is not enough to resolve the issue but strong influence on both sides is also required.  Is there any power which can influence both? Iran has some good economic and historical relations with China, Germany, and especially with Russia. Russia can influence Iran but does it have any kind of influence on United States? The simple answer is ‘No’. If the United Kingdom is close to the USA, it has no influence over Iran.

In fact Iran is not a very powerful country and can’t stand alone but unfortunately the United States being the superpower can influence other countries to change their decisions but now there is no power to change her mind. It is natural that such a powerful country will not listen too much but the world is not made of many individual countries only. It has an organization called United Nations Organization (UNO) which has the representation of almost all the countries of the world. If one country doesn’t have influence on Super Power the UNO should have, as it represents the entire world. But is it like this? The answer is again ‘No’.

It is a real dilemma of the world that the organization which should have influence on all the member countries is actually under the influence of few powerful countries. The biggest influence which any country has on United Nations is the United States of America. Many countries clearly put fingers on UNO’s role and its weakness against powerful nations. So for this reason a powerful country like United States can ignore UNO and work on its own, as it attacked Iraq in 2003 without the mandate of United Nations.

To prevent such things and for durable world peace and stability a Strong United Nations Organization is needed which must have the power to influence any member nation and could work independently without being influenced by anyone. Otherwise, the big powers will never listen to anyone and keep doing whatever they want, whether it is right or wrong.

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